Hi Tweets:
After reading Michael Hobbs' great msg about doing a birding tour in awful weather to
Pierce county and beyond, I decided to visit Mounts Road. It is in Pierce County
just north of Nisqually NWR, and is just off of I-5. I did it on Thurs, Jan 31. I
had never been there before, and the birding was quite good, despite the awful
weather.
I exited I-5 at Mounts Rd, exit 116. I turned right and almost immediately was
driving through the FT Lewis Golf Course. There are thick oak woods along the left
side of the road, and in the golf course areas there are lots of fir trees. As I
drove the road past the golf course, there was an old fir tree whose diam was at
least 7 feet near the end of the course. Down past the course there are a few homes
and small ranches, and one dairy farm. I heard a Scrub Jay. There was a lot of
brush, and if it hadn't been raining, windy, and 38 degrees, I think there would be
small birds in the area. I continued down the main road as it went through a narrow
RR underpass, and eventually parked down in a marked pullout at the bottom near I-5.
I was looking out at the huge muddy field that you can see beside I-5 as you are
approaching Nisqually WLR from the north. There is a small stream running into the
field and there is a lot of water there, kind of like a salt marsh. Some wigeon,
mallards, and Green-w Teal were in the field. It was 9:50am, and raining hard.
Around the field I could see at least 6 BALD EAGLES, some adult and some immature.
At 10:30 the rain let up, and the sun came out. Suddenly the gulls were getting up
out in the center of the field, and there were 2 PEREGRINE FALCONS, swooping about
and flying at each other. One was quite light colored, and the other was smaller,
and darker. An immature NORTHERN HARRIER flew through. 2 Red-tailed Hawks were
perched and flying over by the river.
A local man walked down the road and continued walking on past the pullout and around
a corner of the woods. I think he might have continued to walk the road/trail out
into the big field, as I thought I saw him later when I was driving on I-5. I wish I
would have checked out whether the public can walk out into the field itself.
I drove back up to the golf course, hoping to hear or see the possible Blue Jay. I
missed the jay, but parked at the small overflow parking lot, and saw 2 VARIED
THRUSH, 4 Golden-c Sparrows, and many robins. I walked over to the large parking
lot, and behind the clubhouse/restaurant where all the fir trees are. I heard
several RED CROSSBILLS calling, and saw two of them. I think one or two crossbills
were singing, rather than calling their jip-jip call. There were a lot of
Golden-crnd Kinglets in the trees. It was raining pretty hard. The only folks on
the course were maintenance people.
Then I drove on down to Nisqually NWR, arriving at 12:10pm during a big rainstorm. I
waited it out at the visitor's center, talking to Phil Kelley and group. They had
seen a bittern that morning.
The rain and strong winds eventually let up, and I headed out to the Twin Barns
overlook. At 1pm the sun came out. 2 juv Bald Eagles flew in the field to the
right. There were over 100 MEW GULLS in the fields. Looking toward McAllister Creek
from the overlook, I could see a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK perched in the top of a bush,
about 6 ft from the ground. It was a light-morph male. And in the field to the
right, a male AMERICAN KESTREL perched briefly.
I went back to the visitor's center and waited out another shower. At 3pm I headed
to McAllister Creek. The GREATER WHT-FRONTED GOOSE was in the nearest field w/ a
couple of Cackling Geese. There were several NORTHERN SHOVELERS, and one CANVASBACK.
A lot of Red-tailed Hawks, and brown Northern Harriers were around. Out at
McAllister Creek there was a COMMON GOLDENEYE. It was raining again, and as I walked
back about 4pm, a NORTHERN SHRIKE actively flitted about the cattails about 2 blocks
back from McAl. Creek. It was off the trail about 200 feet, on the side facing Puget
Sound. The bird was a brownish color, so looking for a white bird did not work for
me. It must be a first winter bird, going into adult plumage, as it did not have
much of a mask on its face. As I continued back to the visitor's center, a male
NORTHERN HARRIER flew by. All the other harriers during the day had been brown
birds. As I got to the parking lot, and prepared to leave about 4:15, 2000 CACKLING
GEESE flew in from the south. I missed the American Bittern, but the birding had
been very good, despite the wild winter rain showers.
Yours, Carol Schulz
Des Moines, WA
linusq at att.net